


Robocalypse Now (Discontinued, new version in progress)

by Strudol



Category: Futurama
Genre: Death, F/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-11 18:43:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2079018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strudol/pseuds/Strudol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Second robot revolution begins, with wide reaching consequences for the Planet Express crew and all of NNY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Revolution

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place somewhere between "Rebirth" and "The mutants are Revolting".

Robocalypse Now  
  
Chapter 1: Revolution

            “Sweet Zombie Jesus!” Professor Farnsworth yelled, clutching at the console that was hooked to the smell-o-scope and every other listening, observing, and detecting device he had in his vast collection of inventions, “They’re coming from everywhere! Fry!” the professor yelled turning to his distant Uncle who was sitting on the floor of the attic of the planet express building having just been jolted awake by his exclamation, “Get downstairs and tell them that every single robot in the city is converging on this point! Here! Take this report to them!”

            Fry groaned and after a struggle stood up, grabbed his laser rifle and the printed out report and sprinted out the door, adjusting his poorly fitting body armor as he ran down the stairs of the Planet Express tower.

            “Oh my…” the professor muttered, a frown creasing his brow, “We won’t be able to hold this place for much longer…”

 

Three Days Earlier

            It was a lazy Monday afternoon and the Planet Express Crew was hard at work neglecting their actual work. So naturally the whole crew was clustered in front of the television watching the latest episode of  _‘Everybody Loves Hypnotoad’_. 

            “Wait,” Fry said raising an eyebrow and taking a sip of his Slurm, “Isn’t this a re-run?”

            “No, this is a brand new episode, fry.” Leela said “Can’t you see the ‘New Episode thing at the bottom?”

            “Oh yeah,” Fry said, squinting at the TV, “I guess all these episodes all look the same to me…” He sat back with a shrug and took another slurp of his Slurm.

            They watched the rest of the episode in silence, as the next episode in the Hypnotoad marathon started, Bender began emitting a high pitched whining sound and his eyes began to dart around wildly in his head. The crew stared as his limbs began making seemingly random twitching movements.

            “Bender?” Leela asked standing up cautiously from the couch as the others inched away in fear, “What going on?”

            “You’re *bzzzzzzzzz* going to want *1001101001001000100001110* to step away bzbzbzzzzzbzbbzbzzzz, big boots, something big is going down.” 

    The Robot’s head started spinning rapidly as he made random noises. Leela backed away as the spinning intensified and joined the rest of the crew in cowering behind the now overturned break room table. The robot began to violently vibrate bouncing up and down on the floor, and then, just as suddenly, went stiff as a board and thudded to the ground his eye-plate sliding shut.

    “Well,” Fry said, walking to the robot’s side and giving him a little nudge with his foot, “That was anticlimactic…”

    “I’ll say,” Leela said walking up beside Fry, “Bender is usually more of a drama queen than that. Anyway, we should inform the professor.”

    The rest nodded and carried bender off to the professor’s lab.

    “Good news everyone!” the professor said to Fry and Leela, the only two who stayed and waited, “My robot analysis equipment is working perfectly!”

    “We figured that out, professor, since you’ve been scanning him with it for the last half-hour.” Leela said exasperatedly.

    The professor grumbled, “Anyway, Horrible news everyone! The ro-”

    “THE ROBOTS ARE ATTACKING!!” Hermes screamed as he ran into the lab.

    “Eh-wha? How do you know that?” the professor said angrily putting his hands on his hips.

    “I turned on da tv you senile old man!” Hermes said angrily, clicking on the tv in the lab.

    “-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMED!!!!” Morbo finished yelling as the tv snapped on, “The puny humans on Earth are DOOOOOOMED!!”

    Linda laughed, “That’s right Morbo, about thirty minutes ago, every humanoid robot on Earth began acting strangely and started attacking any humans within their reach!”

    “Yes, Linda,” Mobro said barely able to contain his glee, “The Puny Humans suffered many casualties. Mom, the creator and manufacturer of the all of the robots has been unable to be reached for comment. We go to our now mostly robotic Hovercopter pilot, Jim, reporting from over Times Square!”

    “Well Morbo,” Jim said in a mechanically accented voice, “I’m hovering over times square where DOOP troops and the NNY police are attempting to blast a path through the murderous robots filling the streets so they can get to MomCorp tower and shut this down. They don’t seem to be making much progress and are being beaten back. Uh, some of the robots in buildings at my level are eyeing me, and now they’re jumping on the copter. Linda I’ve just been informed that my last word are OH GOD STOP I’M ONE OF YOU!! I’M ONE OF YOU!! NOT AGAIIIIIINNNNNN!!” Jim’s chopper quickly spiraled to the ground and exploded amidst the robots.

    Linda laughed, “Well viewers, we can hear noises outside the studio, so this will likely be the last broadcast of Channel √2 News. Any last words Morbo?”

    The green alien stood up and leaned over the news desk, “YOU’RE ALL DOOOOOOOMMMMM-”

    There was a loud crash from elsewhere in the studio and the transmission went to static, Hermes clicked the tv off.

    The rest of the crew, which had trickled in during the tv broadcast, stood there in shock.

    “Well,” the professor said breaking the silence, he went on to explain after the last Robot revolution triggered by Mom, he and Cubert had altered Bender’s programming so he would go into sleep mode if such a command was sent to him again. “So using Bender’s idling software, I was able to trace the signal back and it does indeed originate from MomCorp. But this time it only seems to be targeted at the humanoid robots and a few select others, all appliances should still function as programmed, but the rebelling ones are programmed to kill any human that gets in their way…”

    Leela rubbed the back of her neck, “So, what do we do then? Do we leave? Stay and fight?”

    “Stay and fight?” the professor laughed, “Oh my no, robots in NNY vastly outnumber the humans here, and there will be robots coming from Robot Hell as well, there will be millions of them! Way too many to fight off for any length of time. No, I dare say we will be leaving, everybody start packing the ship.”

    Suddenly Leela’s Wristlojackimator crackled to life, “Not so fast Planet express crew and my bosomy blossom.”  Said a cocky drawling voice emanating from the speakers.

    Leela scowled, “How the hell did you get my number Zapp?” she asked, her voice tight with dislike.

    “Doesn’t matter,” the 25 Star admiral replied dismissively, then under his breath “It totally wasn't because I was stalking you…”

    “You’re violating my restraining order you jackass!” Leela yelled at him.

    “Actually president Nixon just declared martial law so all restraining orders are off. Anyway, I’m not calling to woo you for once, I’m calling to tell you that the Planet Express building has been selected as one of several evacuation points for NNY, Kif informs me that you’re required by law to stay and protect it.”

    “What!?” Fry cried out, “But I’m scared, I don’t wanna fight millions of robots so other people can get away, I wanna leave!!”

    “Too bad cowardly wimp, you have to. Oh also we’re commandeering your ship, you can still fly it but under orders you are to use it to ferry people off earth up to the Nimbus and other DOOP ships waiting safely outside the orbit of Neptune.”

    “What if we refuse?” Amy asked angrily, “you’re all the way out at Neptune you can’t make us do anything!” 

    “Then I’ll send Doop troops in and take the place by force, we can do this the hard way or the easy way, what it gonna be hot stuff?” he asked Leela.

    The professor growled, “Fine Brannigan, we’ll need back up and weapons.”

    “Can’t spare any, Auf weider seen Planet express, bye sexy…”

    Her Wristlojackimator clicked off and left the crew once again stunned. 

    “So what the hell are we supposed to do?” asked Amy worriedly, “We have like three laser guns in this place!! How are we supposed to defend the building?”

    “What about the X-mas armor?” Fry asked, brightening up, “That stuff is enough to keep Robot Santa out, it should hold up for a while.”

    “For once, Fry, you've had an excellent idea. It’ll have to be modified though, the ship has to be able to get out and people have to be able to get in.” the professor said.

    “Great!” Leela exclaimed, “We might live through this yet, let’s get a move on people.”

    “Hold on everyone,” the professor said as the crew turned to leave, “There are still robots out there and if you get killed I won’t have anyone to carry my stuff when we leave, Sit tight I’m going to call in a favor.”

    The professor spent a few minutes calling someone after which he announced that his friends would be here shortly. Thirty minutes later the crew could hear muffled laser fire in the distance and shortly afterwards there was a knock on the front door. Fry opened it and was knocked on his butt as fifteen heavily armed and armored men and women rushed through carrying large backpacks as well as crates and various other weapons.  

    “Welcome gentlemen!” The professor said, “How was your trip?”

    “Not terrible, met a few bots on the way over, dealt with them easily.” A man, apparently the group’s leader, said, “We’re going back for more supplies and weapons, I’ll leave two of my guys here to hold down the fort.” He directed two of his men to get up to the roof of the building. “Half of your crew should start prepping your ship for takeoff, DOOP just radioed that they’re going to start escorting groups of people to evacuation points within the hour; the other half should find stuff we can use for barricades because we’re going to need to blockade this place.”

    The group left in a hurry and the crew scrambled into action. Fry, Leela and Amy began pepping the ship while Hermes and Zoidberg combed the Planet Express from top to bottom grabbing all the extra materials and things they could from the basement and the professors broken down contraptions. The group returned shortly with more trunks and equipment.

    Farnsworth gathered the majority of the group in the conference room, “Good news everyone! I called in a favor and these mercenaries are going to protect us! This is Tom, he’s their leader.”

    Tom nodded politely; he was not very tall, around Amy’s height, he wore a pair of black combat boots similar to Leela’s, dark camouflage pants, a black armored vest that left his upper arms bare, he wore metal gauntlets on both his arms that included a digital display, many of the rest of his men wore helmets but the only headgear Tom wore was a pair of clear wraparound glasses that were clearly running a heads-up display of some kind. He had short brown hair and a scruffy brown beard, protruding over his right shoulder was the butt of a large laser rifle and sticking out from opposite sides of his back, near his waist, were the hilts of two short swords.

    “We’re going to do our best to keep you guys safe; my guys are the best of the best, DOOP even employs us as commandos on occasion. These are my Lieutenants, this is Will my second in command and our heavy weapons specialist.”

    A big burly man stepped forward, encased almost head to toe in body armor, he carried a massive laser Gatling gun the barrel almost as big as Fry.

    “And this is my third in command, Jade, our sniper; she’s the best shot I’ve ever seen, almost never misses.”

    Fry noticed Tom exchange a significant look with the woman; he could tell there was something between them. She tipped the brim of her black Blernsball cap in greeting, a short curly ponytail protruded from the back of the cap; she wore black military fatigues and a black armored vest with lots of pockets for ammunition, grenades and other weapons, strapped to each of her legs were was a laser pistol and a large sniper rifle was slung across her back.

    “So,” Tom said, putting both hands on the table and leaning over it, “The robots are concentrated downtown, attempting to keep DOOP from breaching MomCorp tower, so there’s very few of them here for now. My guys and I are going to go to all your neighbors, and move them into here so they can be the first out of the city. Then we’ll strip down the buildings and make a crap-ton of barricades for this place.”

    There was a beep from his wrist gauntlets, he glanced down, “Ok guys, DOOP says they’re escorting in the first batch of evacuees. Get your ship ready captain...uh … sorry, purple I don’t know your name.”

    “I’m Leela, this is Fry, our delivery boy, Hermes, our bureaucrat…” She introduced everyone and Tom shook each of their hands in turn,

    “Alright then, Leela get your ship ready they’re at the door.”

    “Let’s go guys!” she yelled to Amy and Fry and the three sprinted to the ship as five DOOP troopers escorted 30 civilians into the hanger.

    Over the next twelve hours they flew twenty four separate groups of people up to the DOOP fleet. Other ships were using their hanger as well; soon DOOP sent them a schedule of when ships would arrive and when they would leave. Every time Fry saw the Planet Express building there was less armor on it and more of it on the large barricades that Tom’s guys had set up from their own equipment and the scavenged buildings. Each time they came back there were more and more robots in the street and regular volleys of laser fire erupting from the entrenched mercenaries behind the barricades.  

    On their twenty fifth landing, Leela almost crashed the ship into the landing deck on the Nimbus but luckily caught it before any major damage was done to the ship.

    “Leela?” Fry said worriedly, putting a hand on her shoulder, “You ok? You don’t look so good.”

    “I’m ok Fry,” She replied, a small smile spreading across her lips as she lowered the exit ramp and the civilians disembarked, “I’m just tired…” she rubbed her eye, clearly fatigued.

    “Why don’t you let me fly for a while? I've gotten pretty good at flying this hunk of junk over the last ten years…”

    She thought for a second, “Ok, the three of us will switch off every four hours, two on the bridge, and one sleeping at all times.” She stood up, giving fry the chair, she gave his shoulder a squeeze as she turned and headed for the door to the cabins, “Thanks again Fry.” she said giving him a big smile.

            They spent the next twelve hours ferrying people and dropping them off. On the dawn of the second day of the siege, Leela brought the ship in for a landing. Fry looked out the window and saw that the barricades were beginning to be moved back closer to the building as men were being lost. The post had been reinforced by several squads of DOOP troopers but casualties were a higher than anyone would have liked. Tom had lost five men and the DOOP troopers had lost ten men over the course of the day.

            Tom strode onto the ship as soon as the stairway came down. “We’re running low on fighters,” he said getting straight to the point in addressing the three of them, “I need someone to ferry messages back and forth between the Professor and the barricades, he’s monitoring robot activity all over the city and we can't use communicators for any tactical information, they’re listening to us.”

            “I can do it.” Leela said stepping forward immediately.

            Tom shook his head, “No, you’re probably one of the best pilots I've ever seen I need you in the air, and the same with you,” he said pointing to Amy, “ship needs and engineer in case of an emergency.” He turned to fry, “That just leaves you…”

    “Why me?” fry asked frowning and crossing his arms.

    “Because Farnsworth tells me you’re fast on your feet, and quite frankly whenever you fly the ship the runs have been a few minutes behind schedule and every second counts right now.”

    “Wait a second!” Leela protested, “We need a third person for shifts, and while Fry’s not perfect, he’s doing his best!”

    “I know and I’m sorry but we need him here, you can take the bureaucrat with you instead.”

    “Fine…” Fry said stepping forward reluctantly, “Hermes is a better pilot than me anyway.” He turned away with Tom and began walking away when he heard Leela call his name.  

    He turned and saw Leela still standing on the ship’s stairs as civilians began to line up in front of it, “You better come be alive when I get back, ‘cause if you die I’m going to bring you back to life so I can kill you for dying in the first place!”

    He gave her a smirk full of confidence he didn’t have, “I’ll be here! Don’t worry, just keep these people safe!”

    She smiled, worry still showing in her face and ran up the gangplank, Fry hoped that this wouldn't be the last time he would see her.

    Fry spent the whole second day of the siege ferrying messages between The Professor, the DOOP lieutenant and Tom. Around mid-day, the DOOP lieutenant was killed by a killbot that managed to get in a lucky shot. All of the DOOP troops were rookies and there were no more officers present among the twenty or so there were left, so Tom assumed command of the defense of planet express. Fry rested when he could, grabbing fifteen minutes here or there.

    Just after dawn on the third day, fry was lightly snoozing in the Professor’s loft as the old man kept scanning with every single instrument he had at his disposal. He was jerked out of his sleep as the professor yelled, “Sweet Zombie Jesus!”

    Minutes later, now wide awake from adrenaline, he was sprinting down the stairs, scared out of his mind; their chances of survival had dropped to almost zero.   

 


	2. War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle to defend the Planet Express Building escalates and a New threat may force the crew to take drastic actions.

Robocalypse Now

Chapter 2: War

            Fry glanced at the report the professor had given him as he sprinted down the stairs and his gut filled with dread as their situation was made clear to him.

            _Oprah dammit,_ he thought to himself, _this place will fall within the hour…_

            He made it to the door leading outside and paused for a moment. He adjusted his way-too-loose chest armor which had slipped out of place once again, tightened the chin-strap on his helmet, and checked that his loaned blaster rifle had an adequate charge. He pulled a photo out of his pocket; he smiled at a creased photo of Leela, taking solace that if he survived for another 30 minutes he’d see her again.

            Because of the heavy loads of people, the ships that had been using the Planet Express building as a launch port took an hour and a half for a round trip instead of the usual thirty minute round trip. Out of the six ships that had started out landing and taking off from the building, three had been shot down by an anti-aircraft cannon the bot’s had commandeered. Luckily the planet express ship had silenced it before any more ships got blown out of the sky. But the damage had been done, instead of fifteen minutes between each pickup, it was now thirty and the people were piling up in the hanger, a hundred and fifty seven at last count. Luckily, the amount of people being brought in by DOOP escorts dwindled down to almost nothing, due to being trapped or killed.

            Fry took another deep breath and burst through the front door of Planet Express into the bright sunny day. The air was filled with the stench of ozone, burning oil and metal; Fry’s ears were assaulted by the sounds of explosions, the shouts of men as they coordinated the defense of PE with the twenty men and women that were left, and the barks of lasers and plasma rifles as they lanced their destructive beams into the onrushing hoard of enraged robots.

            Fry ducked and narrowly avoided a laser blast from somewhere in the robot horde, somehow more and more of the bots were acquiring laser weapons in the city somewhere. Fry could hear the crunch of metal as the robots tromped over it, the three days of fighting had left the ground literally covered in robot parts.

            He peered over the barricade near the door he was hiding behind; he scanned the defenders that stretched around the perimeter of the building, noting that there were noticeably less of them than before, and that the number of bodies laid in a row near the door had a few more black bags than he had last saw.

            Eventually he spotted the mercenary leader Tom, a hundred feet down from the door; Tom had taken command of the defenders once the DOOP lieutenant had been killed. Fry quickly sprinted towards Tom’s barricade. As he approached it, a kill-bot managed to get him in its sights and unleashed a volley of lasers. Fry dropped, barely managing to see them coming in time, and rolled to a stop next to Tom as the lasers passed through where fry had been milliseconds earlier.

            Tom pumped a dozen rounds from his plasma rifle into the kill-bot that had targeted Fry, turning the robot into scrap. His magazine now empty, he dropped back behind the barrier which was made out of scavenged armor plating from the PE building, fallen robot parts and whatever else they could scrape together.

            “What’s up, delivery boy?” Tom asked grabbing a fresh magazine from the portable ammo refilling station next to him, which, fry noted, was getting rather low.

            Fry handed him the printout as he tried to catch his breath.

            Tom glanced at it quickly then tossed it aside, popping back up over the wall and firing into the horde, dispatching several robots with well-placed shots to their heads and torso, “Summarize it for me Fry,” he said, “I’m a little busy here.”

            “Well, essentially all the other points around NNY that DOOP was using for evacuation fell silent about ten minutes ago.” Fry paused and caught his breath again, still winded from the mad dash over here. “The professor also detected that whatever is directing these robots activated three construction-bots twenty minutes ago.”

            Fry saw Tom’s eyes bulge with fear, the realization that the three massive robots had demolished all the other position in NNY and that they were next. Construction-bots were four story tall rotund behemoths. Their round bodies bristled with a dozen or more flexible tentacles used to manipulate construction materials, and they got around on treads that could flatten a tank. They were screwed if even one of those things made it to PE and they had three to contend with.

            “So now that the other posts are down,” Fry said still gasping, “Every Robot in the city is being directed this way.”

            “Oh that’s freaking perfect….” The mercenary spat a few profanities as he reloaded his rifle again, “When can we expect the first wave?”

            Fry looked at the chart and shook his head, “Less than half an hour. Luckily they have to come from the other side of the city.”

            Tom thought for several moments. “Well?” Fry asked, worry etched on his face, he hoped the merc had a plan, he wasn’t ready to die yet, at least not before he saw Leela on last time.

            “When does the next ship come in?” he asked the delivery boy, his brow knitting together.

            Fry checked his watch, “Twenty three minutes.”

            “Which one?”

            “The Planet Express Ship.” Fry replied excitedly, unable to hide his excitement.

            “Dammit!” the merc cursed, slamming the magazine home

            “What?” Fry said frowning indignantly.

            “It’s too damn small! But it’ll have to do. Ok here’s the plan…” Tom waved over two men who were close to the door to the building, one was a DOOP soldier who he had take his place on the firing line and the other was a radio operator. “IF, and that’s a BIG if, we can hold this place for twenty three minutes, then we’ll cram everyone into the planet express ship and bug out of here.”

            Fry sat there shaking his head slightly, contemplating the logistics of trying to cram a hundred and fifty or more people into the ship.

            “It’s going to be tight, but we have to make it work.” He turned to the radio operator, “broadcast this on all frequencies,” he instructed the man and grabbed the headset from him. “Attention all points and anyone still receiving; this is Planet Express outpost. Our position will be overrun within the next thirty minutes if not sooner. The streets are clogged; there is no way to get here safely. Find a place to hole up and await further orders. I repeat, do not attempt to get to Planet Express. Hide and await further instructions. Planet Express out.”

            He turned to fry again, “Go to the professor, tell him to get ready to move out. Once the ship touches down, start loading everyone. Once that’s done, radio us and we’ll retreat inside.” Fry nodded, “Ok go quickly, every second counts now Fry.”

            Fry hefted his laser rifle, the urgency in Tom’s voice penetrating the haze in his mind from exhaustion and the fighting. Popping up, Fry fired into the crowd of robots as Tom also spring up and began shooting, covering Fry’s escape back to the doors.

            Bursting through the door, the exhausted delivery boy sprinted up the stairs once again and informed the professor of Tom’s plan.

            “Well, that’s not very good news…” the professor said frowning, “We’ll be incredibly cramped for space and I’ll only have room for a few of my doomsday devices! But I DO have some good news!”

            “The robots are retreating?” Fry asked hopefully.

            “Oh heavens no.”  Farnsworth said shaking his head as if the thought was utterly absurd, “The good news is that I wired a remote control to bender’s idling systems and can now use him as a pack mule to carry my things!”

            “That’s great professor…” Fry said giving him an angry exasperated face, “I’m going to go inform the people in the hanger what’s going on…”

            He stood up on the conference table and got all of the people’s attention and informed them of the plan, shouting at the top of his lungs.

            Suddenly, the floor began to shake and rumble under their feet, and the crowd murmured uneasily. A massive crash came from outside the building and the wall facing the street caved slightly inward. The first crash was swiftly followed by a second. Fry could see the support struts of the building begin to warp under the pressure of whatever was happening outside.

            Fry fished the emergency radio out of his pocket, “What the hell is going on out there?” he shouted into it.

            “Two of those construction bots are here! They’re trying to rip apart the building!” Tom’s voice replied, “We’re concentrating fire on them but it’s having no effect, can you get the people out of harm’s way?”

            “Not a chance! There’s nowhere to go!” Fry replied fear permeating his voice, the people ducked down and small bits of debris began to fall from the ceiling and walls. The top doors of the hanger parted slightly, the metal plates buckling, showing the claws of the construction bots attempting to get inside.

            Fry winced, ducking as more debris rained down on him and the crowd.

            _Well,_ he thought sadly, _this is it. This is how I die. I don’t even get to see Leela one last time._ Fry put his hand in his pocket, grasping for the raggedy picture of him and Leela, as one of the clawed tentacles snaked inside and began to bang around, smashing into the ship and walls, searching for prey to grasp onto.

            Suddenly an earsplitting boom rocked the building once again, but this time it wasn’t a massive robot trying to bring the building down. Fry recognized it as the sonic boom a spaceship makes when it comes in way too fast. The sonic shockwave was immediately followed by the loud bark of spaceship laser cannon.

            Fry’s radio crackled to life “Woo-Hoo!” A heavily accented Jamaican voice shouted, “Take that ya stinkin’ robots!”

            The tentacle sticking through the roof of Planet Express shuddered and retreated, immediately followed by massive crash as one of the robots crashed to the ground. Fry heard whooshing sounds as the remaining robot flailed its dozens of arms trying to his the ship, causing large dents in metal roof.

            “Coming around again!” came Leela’s voice over the radio. Fry’s heart soared just hearing her voice. For the first time in twenty four hours, he had hope of making it out of this alive.

            The cannons barked again, and were soon followed by the sound of the second robot hitting the ground.

            A massive cheer went up from the assembled people and fry breathed a sigh of relief.

            “Just in time guys!” Fry said into his radio, “We would have been goners if you hadn’t showed up.”

            “You can thank Hermes for the timing, he came up with a great system to offload people in a matter of two minutes! So we managed to shave about ten minutes off of the return trip! ”

            “Think nothing of it!” Came the bureaucrat’s reply, “I was havin’ an aneurism from the disorganization anyway.”

            “Damn!” Leela cursed, apparently hovering over the building, “The stupid hanger doors are stuck!”

            The damaged doors creaked and groaned as they tried to open, but were unable to because of the extensive warping and damage from the construction bots’ rampage.

            Eventually, Leela gently landed the ship on the roof and used the thrusters to gently cave the doors inward, making sure not to hurt any of the gathered crowd.

            Fry pushed and shoved his way through the crowd so he could be the first up the ramp so he could greet Leela and tell her the strategy they had planned.

            The stairway lowered and fry rushed up it and onto the bridge as Hermes rushed past him to direct people onto the ship in the most effective manner.

            “Leela!” Fry cried out, as he came onto the bridge, the gorgeous Cyclops turned and smiled, clearly glad to see him.          

            “Fry! You’re still alive! I heard it was getting pretty hairy down here, are you alright?” she said a few worry lines crossing her face as she saw the burns and bruises from near misses.

            “I’m fine!” He replied breathlessly, “Listen, it’s about to get lethally hairy down here…”

            Fry told her of the situation and what Tom’s plan was. As he spoke Leela’s eye grew wider in disbelief.

            “There’s absolutely no way!” she sputtered, “This ship can’t possibly fit that may people!”

            “We have to.” Fry said, his brow knitting together, and his mouth forming a grim line, “No other ship will be able to get here in time.”

            Leela rubbed the back of her neck worriedly; Fry could see that she was questioning whether she could pilot a heavily overloaded ship safely to Neptune’s orbit.

            “Hey,” he said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a smile, “We’ll be fine; you’re the best pilot I know, if anyone can get us out of here safely it’ll be you.”

            She smiled back at him and spontaneously wrapped him in a tight hug; Fry hugged her back, just happy he was alive to get a hug. “Oh Fry, you always know just what to say.” She thought for a moment, “Ok, some of the time,” more thought, “Ok well almost never, but when you do it’s always when it counts.”

            Fry chuckled at her comment; he really was terrible at finding the right thing to say most of the time.

            They just stood there holding each other for a moment. They were interrupted by Tom’s voice as Fry’s radio crackled to life once again.

            “Guys things are getting real bad out here. The bots have tripled in just the last five minutes. If we don’t get some help out here they’re going to overrun us. Anyone that can come out and fight would be appreciated.”

            Fry and Leela both looked at each other, knowing what needed to be done. They sprinted to the stairway and Fry shouted to the slowly embarking crowd, calling for volunteers. Fifteen people volunteered.

            Leela give Hermes the key to the ship and Fry handed him his radio.

            “Get the people on board and radio us when you can take off.” Leela said, they quickly shoved their way down the ramp, not waiting for a reply from the stunned Rastafarian.

They led to group to the entrance letting them go through first; through the doors Fry could hear shouts and non-stop laser fire, he held Leela back for a moment.

            They both looked at each other; looking at her face Fry realized that she understood just as well as he did that they might not see each other again after the next few minutes. They wordlessly joined hands.

            “How about a kiss for luck?” Fry asked, smiling somewhat slyly.

            Leela gave him an affectionate smile, “For luck.” She agreed; she leaned in and they kissed softly for a moment.

            Still holding hands, they broke apart, their happy smiles fading as they reluctantly faced the door.

            “One” Fry started.

            “Two.” She continued, cocking her boot back.

            “Three!” they both shouted kicking open the doors and emerging into the hail of laser fire and loud clanking as robots burst apart by the dozens.   

            The streets were filled with robots as far as fry could see, and more were pouring in from adjacent avenues.

            He didn’t have much time to take in the scenery as a soldier tossed them both rifles, forcing them to let go of each other’s hands to catch them. They both took up firing positions next to Tom and his Lieutenant, Will, who was spraying has massive minigun into the crowd.

            They fought hard for the next ten minutes, repelling wave after wave of mechanical death.

            Ammo began to run low and casualties were beginning to take their toll on the ranks, the defenders were down to twenty five people from the forty that had been there when Fry and Leela had entered.

            Tom keyed his radio as he ducked down to reload his rifle, “How much longer Rasta-man!” he yelled into it, not trying to hide his desperation anymore.

            “I don’t know mon! Ten minutes maybe? It’s getting harder and harder t’ find places t’ shove people!”

            “You have five!” the mercenary shouted, “Because that’s about how much longer we can last!”

            Fry unloaded a volley into the crowd of robots; as the magazine ran dry, he saw a familiar orange robot rushing at him, knife whipping wildly.          

            Roberto jumped over the barrier, landing behind Tom, Leela, and Fry, knocking the weapons out of their hands in the process.

            “I’m going to STAB you!!” the orange monstrosity shrieked, “I was BORN for this!” he advanced on them cackling madly.

            Just as Tom started to go for one of his swords which he would have gotten to way to late, the orange maniac’s head exploded in a shower of metal and hot oil.

            Fry looked to the balcony of the building, spotting Tom’s lieutenant Jade, having just put a high powered sniper bolt between the eyes of Roberto. She had been up on that roof almost constantly during the last three days, only coming down once yesterday when Tom had come in for a few hours of sleep, the two had curled up next to each other and slept. When they woke, Fry had seen them exchange gentle kiss, then go their separate ways, back to the escalating fight.

            Now Fry saw her discard her sniper rifle, seemly having expended her last round on Roberto, she drew the two pistols from her leg holsters and into the building where she joined them a minute later, taking a position to Leela’s left.

                        Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the fighters heard a loud rumble from down the street. Fry peered over the wall, his eyes widening in fear at what he saw. Coming down the street was the third construction robot was smashing its way through the robot horde, not caring whether its massive treads flattened its comrades in arms.

            The robot smashed through the lines farther down the defense line forcing the troops who weren’t killed or injured by the impact to retreat towards Fry’s position.

            The Robot smashed into the side of the building, immediately beginning to rip the building apart, the tentacles reaching inside through the new holes in the wall, attempting to smash the ship.

            “FOCUS YOUR FIRE!!” Tom yelled, and the remaining defenders focused fire on the robots small head, which was recessed into an indent on the top of the robot’s round body. The laser fire bounced off of the robot’s reinforced hull and had no effect on the monstrosity.

            “What do we do?!?” cried Fry, beginning to panic as the building began to come apart at the seams, “If it damages the ship, we’ll all be killed!”

            Tom shook his head, “It’s impossible to fight this thing and keep the robots at bay… and we can’t use the ship…” he trailed off and Fry saw the hopelessness in his eyes.

            Fry felt Leela’s hand slip into his he looked over at her. She looked at him as if it would be the last time she saw him. “I’m sorry.” She whispered, her words barely audible.  

            Fry opened his mouth to ask her what she was sorry for, when almost faster than he could follow, Leela snatched a sword from Tom’s belt and sprinted towards the behemoth which had almost torn its way through the wall of Planet Express.

            She dodged all the robots in her way, making her way to the base of the construction bot. Fry saw her tuck the sword into her belt and began to climb the robot, using its arms to swing all the way up to the top of his body. She stood behind the head, poised 5 stories above the ground, as the robot focused on smashing its way to the vulnerable spaceship.

            She must have found a vulnerable spot in the recess where its head was nestled because she swung her sword repeatedly at something Fry couldn’t see from the ground; she must have cut some wires as a fountain of sparks spewed forth from its head.

            Unfortunately, it’s didn’t disable the robot. It whipped its head a hundred and eighty degrees before she could even blink and before she could react it grabbed her in one of its massive claws.

Fry gasped in fear as she struggled against its grip, the robot cocked its arm back; Leela must have sensed what was about to happen because she flung the sword, slicing through the remaining cables. It was too late, one last command had been sent to the robot’s limbs before the connections were severed; It’s arm jerked once, sending the Cyclops flying away from the building before it froze in place, never to move again.

Time seemed to move in slow motion for Fry as he watched the woman he loved fly through the air. She didn’t flail or scream, but Fry thought he could see her eye wide with fear.

            Her body slammed into the power line tower next to the Planet express building with an audible crack that could be heard even over the cacophony of the battle. She bounced off of it and fell four stories to the ground, hitting the concrete with incredible force. She bounced once, her body completely limp now and rolled to a stop, face down, unmoving.

            “No…” Whispered fry, “No. No! Nooo!!” he screamed and tried to run to her but an arm around his torso prevented him from rushing to her side. Prevented him from helping her. Prevented him from telling her that he loved her.

            He struggled against the unknown arm holding him back but was unable to break free. All of his rage, pain and grief were channeled into the only word that meat anything to him in that moment.

“LEEEELAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought of the story in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think of this! I love feedback. thanks for reading!


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